Tag: Mark

…Opening To…

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can… (J.R.R. Tolkein, The Lord of the Rings)

…Listening In…

Jesus and his followers came into Jericho. As Jesus was leaving Jericho, together with his disciples and a sizable crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, Timaeus’ son, was sitting beside the road. (Mark 10:46; context)

…Filling Up…

This week we are talking about roads. Before we start walking down the road, we first have to get on it. There’s a wonderful story in the Gospel according to Mark featuring a man named Bartimaeus, who is blind. Now, Mark chooses his words economically, usually narrating scene with quick, urgent sentences and then moving on to the next story. But during the short interchange between Jesus and Bartimaeus, Mark gives us an unusual level of detail that is quite fascinating.

First, as Mark sets the scene, Bartimaeus is sitting “beside the road.” This is only natural, considering he is a beggar. When he hears that Jesus is coming along, he starts shouting out, “Son of David, show me mercy!” This catches Jesus’ attention and he calls Bartimaeus over. Mark tells us that the beggar “throws” his coat aside and “jumps up,” probably scattering the coins he had received that day. He goes over to Jesus, asks for the ability to see, and Jesus says, “Go, your faith has healed you.”

Bartimaeus interprets this “Go” as an invitation. Perhaps, he reaches into the recesses of his mind and remembers God telling Abram simply to “Go.” And Abram, who later becomes Abraham, “went,” thus launching the relationship between God and the people of Israel. Bartimaeus receives his sight and then “goes” by following Jesus on the “way.” No longer is Bartimaeus a passive sitter “beside” the road; rather, he is an active walker on the road.

Too often in my life, I find myself sitting beside the road instead of walking along it. Bartimaeus waited until he received his sight to follow. What are we waiting for?

…Praying For…

Dear God, you instill in me the desire to follow and grant me the tools to do so. Help me jump up from my reclining position and walk with you down the road. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, strengthened by your love and able to walk another day on weary feet

…Opening To…

O Lord, you are my Lord and my God, and I have never seen you. You have made and remade me and bestowed on me all the good that I possess. (St. Anselm, Proslogion)

…Listening In…

Then Jesus began to teach his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts, and be killed, and then, after three days, rise from the dead.” (Mark 8:31; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “P” is for Passion. In secular society, this word is most often used in one of these three contexts: (1) torrid celebrity love affairs that become tabloid-fodder; (2) the syllabi of motivational speakers; and (3) luxury car commercials. The word “passion” has come to mean a sort of heightened emotional state that drives the individual to do something.

Now, while this definition isn’t a bad one, it often misses the connotation that the etymology of the word brings out. “Passion” comes from a Latin word that means “to suffer.” In church, we tend to capitalize this word and use it when we talk about Jesus’ final week leading up to and including his crucifixion. The Passion (capital-P) comprehends the days of Jesus’ suffering at the hands of the chief priests and the scribes and the Romans and the crowds of people who just a few days before had welcomed him into Jerusalem as a hero.

But while Jesus certainly did suffer, we can also define his Passion with the more modern definition. He suffered out of love – not the torrid infatuation of the tabloids, but the self-sacrificial love of God. He suffered because it was his life’s destiny – not the cheap, “5 steps to finding your passion” of the motivational speaker, but the deep, abiding sense of a call from God. He suffered because his sacrifice was worth it – not the worth of transient comforts like the luxury car, but the worthiness of redeeming the sins of the whole world.

…Praying For…

Dear God, by your Son’s blessed Passion, he reconnected people for all time, including me, to the source of all passions. Help me to discern how I can deploy my own particular constellation of passions to serve you best. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, grateful for the word that you speak daily into my soul, the word that continues to create me and helps me to grow.

…Opening To…

If you look at a window, you see flyspecks, dust, the crack where junior’s Frisbee hit it. If you look through a window, you see the world beyond. Something like this is the difference between those who see the Bible as a Holy Bore and those who see it as the Word of God, which speaks out of the depths of an almost unimaginable past into the depths of ourselves. (Frederick Buechner)

…Listening In…

The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God’s Son, happened just as it was written about in the prophecy of Isaiah: Look, I am sending my messenger before you. He will prepare your way, a voice shouting in the wilderness: “Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight.” (Mark 1:1-3; context)

…Filling Up…

Continuing the Biblical theme of the past few weeks, this week we are going to look at five words we say quite often when we talk about the Bible. These five words are used so often, in fact, that we probably don’t spend too much time thinking about their meanings. Rather, we just say them and forget that the words don’t actually define themselves.

The first word is “Gospel.” Gospel is a pretty word. It rolls off the tongue and retains its pleasant sing-song, Old English quality. Gospel means “good news.” (There’s a cool scene in Tolkien’s The Two Towers, when the antagonistic crony Wormtongue names Gandalf “Láthspell,” which is the opposite of “Gospel.” Gandalf was bearing, at least from Wormtongue’s perspective, “ill news.”)

The four accounts of Jesus’ ministry take the name of “Gospel.” As far as scholars can tell, the writer of the New Testament, including the writer of the Gospel according to Mark, snatched this word out of contemporary parlance and used it as a mission statement for Jesus’ ministry. Until that time, the Greek word for “Gospel” was used for royal proclamations and military victories. “Good news: the emperor had twins!” “Good news: the legions have conquered a new bit of Gaul!”

Mark takes the word away from its original context and uses it for the “good news” of God’s kingdom breaking into the world. In a sense, Mark thumbs his nose at the authorities of the world when he steals their word. He uses the word to show the world the true meaning of “good news.” For followers of Christ in today’s world, it is our duty and joy to make sure our proclamation of the Gospel is still “good news.”

…Praying For…

Dear God, you continue to shower us with the good news of your grace in our lives. Help me to proclaim that good news through both my words and actions to everyone I meet. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, endeavoring to learn more about you, learn more from you, and learn the best ways to be your child in this world.

…Opening To…

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say. (J.R.R. Tolkien)

…Listening In…

As Jesus passed alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” Right away, they left their nets and followed him. (Mark 1:16-18; context)

…Filling Up…

When I find Christ, I am encouraged to keep struggling, to keep striving, all the while knowing that I am by Christ’s side. But wait just a minute. Encouraged is the wrong word: it’s too…academic. Let me try again.

I am enlightened, emblazoned, infused with joy, made brilliant with hope. I am unmasked and uncovered by love and set running with new strength. That’s a little better, but still doesn’t capture it!

Every time we discover Jesus on the road, the encounter is different. We may meet him in a place – say, on a cliff top overlooking a patchwork-quilted farmland or in a city bus depot that smells of urine and wet newspaper. We may meet him in another person – say, in your brother who is always so annoying or in your soccer coach who is pushing you to try your hardest even when you think you have nothing left. But while these encounters may look different, every one of them carries the potential for us to meet Christ.

Indeed, there are so many ways to meet Christ that you might think we would find him everyday. This is not so, but why? Jesus wants to be found; indeed, he is doing a whole lot of finding on his own. But I think we aren’t always looking because we are rarely ready for enlightening, emblazoning, momentous events to sweep us down a new road. Being unmasked and uncovered – these are life-changing events. So the question is: do we want our lives to change?

…Praying For…

Dear God, you infuse the world with your presence, but I often miss it. Grant me the courage to allow Jesus to find me on the road. Grant me the grace to find him. And grant me the humility to let him change my life for the better. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, rejoicing that you walk with me on the road, you stand at the end of the road, and you, indeed, are the road.

…Opening To…

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say. (J.R.R. Tolkien)

…Listening In…

The blind man said, “Teacher, I want to see.” Jesus said, “Go, your faith has healed you.” At once, he was able to see, and he began to follow Jesus on the way. (Mark 10:51-52; context)

…Filling Up…

What emotions do you feel when things begin to fall into place after a time of swirling and turmoil? Relief? Excitement? Trepidation? Peace? Joy? When you move from a place of relative difficulty to a place of relative ease, how do you respond? If you laid your life out on a road, what would that road look like and where would you currently be on it? When we move from a state of turmoil to one where things start falling into place, we may be tempted to think that the long road is finally coming to an end. But even if the road getting to that point has been long, it is, in truth, still just the beginning.

(Okay, just a quick warning: I’m about to talk about The Lord of the Rings, and I’m going to talk about the book, not the movie, so stay with me. Don’t worry if you never read them. My point will be clear either way.)

You might feel like one of the hobbits upon getting to Bree. You have escaped from Black Riders. You have gotten hopelessly lost in the Old Forest. A mean, old willow tree has suffocated and drowned you. Tom Bombadil has found you. And the Barrow-Wights have very nearly succeeded in ending your journey for good. But the story has hardly begun, and these first adventures merely point to ones greater and more harrowing down the road.

Our roads do not contain trolls and elves and wizards, but they are of mystical quality. We may not encounter armies of orcs and great cavalries of men, but we will find high adventure. Our roads are spirituals ones. They are long, and the end is far off…

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are with me through the ups and downs of my life. Help me to seek you both in the good times and in the bad, and help me never to be complacent on my journey. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, rejoicing that you walk with me on the road, you stand at the end of the road, and you, indeed, are the road.

…Opening To…

Sometimes the Lord rides out the storm with us and other times He calms the restless sea around us. Most of all, He calms the storm inside us in our deepest inner soul. (Lloyd John Ogilvie)

…Listening In…

Gale-force winds arose, and waves crashed against the boat so that the boat was swamped. But Jesus was in the rear of the boat, sleeping on a pillow. They woke him up and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re drowning?” He got up and gave orders to the wind, and he said to the lake, “Silence! Be still!” The wind settled down and there was a great calm. (Mark 4:37-39; context)

…Filling Up…

On Tuesday, I asked you to think about where you expect God to be during the storm. Here’s my answer.

I hope that God is in the midst of the storm.
As it swirls around me, I hope that God swirls too,
In a closer orbit than the storm.
I hope that God will set my feet upon a rock and make my footsteps firm,
That God will be my crag and my stronghold,
That God will be with me when I lie down to sleep
And will sustain me until I rise again.

I hope that God will break out from my breaking heart.
I hope that God will be the willing target for my slings and arrows.
I hope that God will chase me when I run away.

I hope that God will be in the silent moments of waiting
And the calamitous moments of distress.
I hope that God will be in the warmth of the hand that holds onto mine
And in the words of the one who consoles me.
I hope that God will be in the breath that somehow still moves into and out of me,
Despite the feeling that death is all around.
I hope that God will take me into the palm of God’s hand
And enfold me with love.

I hope that God will be in the stern of the boat
And when I shout out in my distress,
God will rise up,
See the waves crashing and the wind howling and the boat filling with water,
And God will say to the storm and to the waves and to the heart pounding in my chest,
“Peace, be still.”

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are with me in the storm. Help me be with you. You are with me in my distress. Help me give my distress to you. You are with me all the days of my life. Help me give my life to you. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, praying for the faith to sustain me through all of life’s storms.

…Opening To…

We are as sure to be in trouble as the sparks fly upward, but we will also be “in Christ,” as [Paul] puts it. Ultimately, not even sorrow, loss, death can get at us there. (Frederick Buechner)

…Listening In…

While Jesus was still speaking with her, messengers came from the synagogue leader’s house, saying to Jairus, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the teacher any longer?” But Jesus overheard their report and said to the synagogue leader, “Don’t be afraid; just keep trusting.” (Mark 5:35-36; context)

…Filling Up…

We’ve moved from anxiety through fear and to surrender. Surrendering yourself, your fear of the unknown future, and your anxiety over your lack of control is one of the scariest things you can do. It’s scary because it seems to go against everything that our society teaches: rugged individualism (the idea that you can do everything by yourself), perfect information (the idea that if you just had the right set of factors, you could predict the future), and marketing in general (the idea that if you buy product X you will finally have the life you always dreamed of).

Of course, if you’ve ever read anything that Jesus said, he didn’t give too much credence to what society thought. And we should follow his example. Surrendering to God might feel insane at first. In fact, though I’ve never been skydiving, I assume it feels something akin to the minute you are no longer safely in the plane, but before your parachute opens.

In those moments before the `chute opens, I assume all the reasons you shouldn’t have jumped race through your head. At least, that’s what would be racing through mine. When you surrender to God, the same thing happens: the “world” (in its most negative connotation) assaults you with all the reasons that trusting God is a stupid thing to do.) But if we can survive that assault (and with God’s help, we can), then something overwhelming happens.

We find peace.

When we surrender to God, we rectify the second half of our definition of anxiety. Remember: anxiety happens when you realize you don’t control the future but have yet to stop trying. When we surrender, we stop trying to control our future and we still have the benefit of knowing that we don’t control it! Sounds pretty good to me.

Of course, this kind of trust in God is so very hard. It necessitates a daily surrender, not just a once-in-a-lifetime one. Trusting God is like exercising. If you go to the gym once, you’re not going to get much out of it. But if you make a regimen out of it – or in our case, a spiritual practice – then you can run marathons.

…Praying For…

Dear God, most trustworthy Lord, I ask for the strength to surrender myself to your will and your love each day of my life. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, thankful that you are always and forever inviting me to walk the paths of trust and hope.

Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle; of the mighty conflict sing; tell the triumph of the victim, to his cross thy tribute bring. Jesus Christ the world’s Redeemer from that cross now reigns as King. (Venantius Honorius Fortunatus, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

From noon until three in the afternoon the whole earth was dark. At three, Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani,” which means, “My God, my God, why have you left me?” (Mark 15:33-34; context)

…Filling Up…

For the last seven devos of Lent: last week and during this Holy Week, we are encountering Christ’s seven last words from the cross. These “words” are actually full sentences, and there are three in Luke, three in John, and Matthew and Mark share one, as well (though with a slight variation). For each of the words, I have written a song; now, the songs may or may not include the sayings themselves. Rather, think of them as my response to Jesus speaking out from the cross, a place of vulnerability, shame, and torment – that Jesus turned into a place of majesty, love, and salvation.

For each song, I gave myself no more than two hours to write and one hour to record it. These are by no means polished songs; they are the responses of my heart to Christ crucified. I hope that they enrich you on your Holy Week journey as they have enriched me. What follows is “The Torrents Overtake Me,” my response to Jesus’ fourth word from the cross.

A year ago I came up from the water
The river flowed around me as I watched
A spotless dove descend.
I heard the thunder from the sky say, “You are my son.”
I stared in wonder at the dove and knew
How this would end.

In back I slept right through a raging storm out at sea,
The water swept up o’er the deck and then
We started to sink.
I told the squall, the waves, the winds: “Peace be still.”
And through it all you were with me, so what
Was I supposed to think?

My God, why did you forsake me?Let the current pull me and the torrents overtake me?My God, you could have emptied my cupBut we both know I’ll never give up.

A week ago I rode into Jerusalem;
The people showed their love for me that day,
How could that offend?
Then yesterday the people turned their backs on me
I was betrayed, abandoned, and denied
By those who are my friends.

My God, why did you forsake me?Let the current pull me and the torrents overtake me?My God, you could have emptied my cupBut we both know I’ll never give up.

My hands are screaming at the blinding pain of the nails,
And I keep dreaming that this fight will end
So I can die.
My breath is gone, I can’t keep any air in my lungs,
The pain goes on so I know I’m still alive,
All you who pass by —

As for me, I am a worm and no man,
Scorned by the people,
All who see laugh me to scorn
They curl their lips and wag their heads and say
He trusted in God, should not God rescue him?
Like the nails their words stung
But I chose this cup before the world was young.

But my God, why did you forsake me?Let the current pull me and the torrents overtake me?My God, you could have emptied my cupBut we both know I’ll never give up.

…Praying For…

Dear God, Jesus took on all human pain on the cross, even the pain of feeling abandoned. Thank you for knowing how that feels, and help me to wish to seek you when I feel alone. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, kneeling at the foot of the cross and feeling Christ’s arms of love reaching out to embrace the whole world.

So daily dying to the way of self, so daily living to your way of love, we walk the road, Lord Jesus, that you trod, knowing ourselves baptized into your death: so we are dead and live with you in God. (Thomas H. Cain, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

Then he went a short distance farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if possible, he might be spared the time of suffering. He said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible. Take this cup of suffering away from me. However—not what I want but what you want.” (Mark 14:35-36; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “K” is for kneeling. To be honest, I picked “kneeling” because I couldn’t think of any other good “K” words (and I used “kingdom” last year”). But then I thought more about it and realized that “kneeling” is a perfectly good word to use in a discussion about following Jesus Christ, especially during Lent.

Kneeling is something we do with our bodies. We bend the knee. We plant it on the ground. This is the position of the vassal before his lord. It is also the position of a parent tying a child’s shoe. And it is a position we sometimes assume when we pray. Think about the first two images in light of prayer.

The first shows displays fealty, the loyalty of a less powerful person to a more powerful person. When we kneel in prayer, we use our bodies to show that we understand our proper relationship to God, who is our sovereign, the one to whom we owe our allegiance.

The second displays service, the loving act of one giving of oneself to another. When we kneel in prayer, we use our bodies to show that our prayer is one way in which we serve God. Our prayer opens us up to God working in our lives. The act of kneeling shows that we are willing to get down in the dirt for God’s sake.

When we kneel, we show our loyalty and our willingness to serve. We don’t kneel in order to show off, but in order to remind ourselves of our right relationship with God.

…Praying For…

Dear God, when I kneel before you in prayer you are always ready to listen. Help me to be as open to listening to you in return and to living my life as if I am always kneeling in your service. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, thankful that you continue to shine your light in my heart and mind, that I may continue to know you better through every way that you choose to reveal yourself.

The glory of these forty days we celebrate with songs of praise; for Christ, through whom all things were made, himself has fasted and has prayed. (Hymn from the 6th century; trans. Maurice F. Bell)

…Listening In…

As Jesus passed alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” Right away, they left their nets and followed him. After going a little further, he saw James and John, Zebedee’s sons, in their boat repairing the fishing nets. At that very moment he called them. They followed him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired workers. (Mark 1:16-20; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “C” is for charisma. There are plenty of other good “C” words that I could have chosen; certainly, that are more “churchy” – well, “church,” for instance. Charisma isn’t really a word that’s used much when talking about following Jesus Christ. Perhaps, you’ve heard a preacher talk about Christ’s own charisma – how he attracted crowds, how people followed him seemingly on a whim.

However, you might see a problem with this use of “charisma.” Perhaps, you’ve heard talking heads on the news talk about the charisma of politicians – some just have it, others don’t. Often, politicians trade on this so-called charisma to make up for deficiencies in their political acumen or their knowledge of the world. In this sense “charisma” becomes the commodity they trade on to win office, and therefore it is seen as insubstantial, as part of a smoke and mirrors campaign to get elected. When we talk about Christ’s charisma winning the crowds, we are dangerously close to this kind of political showmanship.

But the word “charisma” is a really old word, and its longevity can save it from the political scene. “Charisma” comes from the Greek word charis (χαρις), which means “grace.” If we remember this root of our English word, then we remember the root of the “compelling attractiveness” that “charisma” has come to mean. The root is God’s grace – not smoke and mirrors, not showmanship, but the elegance and abundance of God’s freely given gifts stored inside a living being.

If Jesus had charisma, and I’m sure he did, then I bet it was this kind – the kind nourished by the grace of God.

…Praying For…

Dear God, your gift of grace picks me up when I stumble and teaches me to dance to the rhythm of your love. Help me to move with this rhythm in my life. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad that you have given me the strength and the will to reflect on my journey with you.

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I am honored and blessed to serve Godas the rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Churchin Mystic, Connecticut.

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Unless otherwise stated, I'll quote from either the NRSV (New Revised Standard Version) translation of the Bible or the CEB (Common English Bible) translation of the Bible. Here's what I'm supposed to tell you: